Revolving head ventilator



Sept. 18, 1956 R. a. FERRIS 2,753,197

REVOLVING HEAD VENTILATOR Filed March 21 1955 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Sept. 18, 1956 Filed March 21, 1955 R. G. FERRIS REVOLVING HEAD VENTILATOR 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Sept. 18, 1956 R. G. FERRIS REVOLVING HEAD VENTILATOR 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed March 21, 1955 w. W W

Zfarvze 51s United States Patent 6 M REVOLVING HEAD VENTILATOR Robert G. Ferris, Harvard, Ill., assignor'to Starline,Inc., :a corporation of Illinois Application Match 21 19.55., SeriaLNo. 495,439

2 Claims. (Cl. 98-68) This invention relates to an improved revolving head ventilator, and in-particular it relates to such a ventilator which is lighter, more etficient, and may be shipped in a much smaller packaging space than revolving head ventilators heretofore known.

There are basically two types of ventilators for the removal of warm air through the roof of a bulding by convection. One of these is the revolving head ventilator, which has a vent stack on :top of which is mounted a rotatable head having a 'vane which positions the head so that its .open side is downstream with respect to the wind. Efficient operation of revolving head ventilators requires that they be very well balanced and that they turn with great ease'so that even a very light puff of wind will act upon the vane to keep'the ventilator opening downstream and prevent backdraft.

The other major type of convection ventilator is the turbine type, which depends upon rotation of the turbine head to operate an internal auger or propeller to evacuate the .air from the building.

The revolving head ventilator has .two basic advantages over the turbine type: one, 'it is extremely efiicient when winds are very light, or non-existent, because exhaustion of air through the ventilator does not depend in any respect upon mechanical movement of the ventilator itself. On the other hand, the turbine type may be almost entirely inoperative unless there is wind blowing on the turbine vanes to rotate the head. The very light forces due to thermal effects of air coming up from the building are often not enough to rotate the ventilator unless the difference between inside and outside temperatures is quite large. Second, due to the necessary shape of the turbine vanes, this type is considerably more costly than the revolving head ventilator.

The heads of conventional revolving head ventilators known to applicant had a U-shaped side wall with the arms of the U shielding the opening; and the projecting arms of the U required a rather heavy counterweight in order to balance the revolving head upon the spindle upon which it turns. The combined weight and shape of the head gave it too much inertia; and light cross winds caused back-draft because they could not turn the head with its opening downstream, but instead would blow into the opening.

Conventional revolving head ventilators have also required a relatively large storage and shipping space because of the shape of the ventilator head.

The revolving head ventilator disclosed in the present application employs a drum-shaped head which inherently is perfectly balanced except for the fact that material is removed from the drum wall at one side to form the ventilating opening. The unbalancing of the drum is compensated partly by a grill over the opening, but mainly by coordinating the size and location of the directing vane with respect to the axis of the drum to balance the latter on its axis. Furthermore, the vane is moved as far as practicable from the axis of the drum, so as to 2,763,197 Patented Sept. 18, 1956 develop the largest possible torque from a given lateral wind eifect.

The vane is removable from'the rotating drum head, and the head is so dimensioned that when the spindle upon which it rotates is removed from the base of the ventilator, the head may nest with the top of the head resting on the topof the base so as to occupy a minimum space for shipping or storage.

As compared with a commercially available revolving head ventilator heretofore manufactured and sold by applicants assignee, the present construction reduces the weight of the ventilator'by 40% using materialof'the same gauge which was used in the old commercial ventilator; and the unit may be packed for shipping in a carton which has two-fifths the volume of the carton used for the previous construction effecting a saving 'in shipping and storage space of 60%. Obviously, such large savings in material, shipping and storage costs, greatly reduce the overall costof the unit to the ultimate purchaser.

A cost-saving feature of the present device which also promotes its efiicient operation is the use of a cross brace for the revolving head which has two arms at an obtuse angle to one another to provide an air deflecting louver. The louver has an opening in its two arms through which the supporting spindle for the head passes, and onearm has a horizontal struck out tab with an annular bearing member'for the spindle. Thus the cross brace serves ;also as a bearing support and an air guiding member.

The invention is illustrated in a preferred embodiment in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a central vertical sectional view of a ventilator constructed in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is a side elevational view on a reduced scale viewing Fig. 1 from the left;

Fig. 3 isa-fragmentary section taken on a reducedscale as indicated along the 'line 33 of Fig. 1; p

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary section on a reduced scale taken as indicated along the line -44 of Pig. 1; i

Fig. 5 is a central vertical sectional view of a ventilator dismantled for shipping;

Fig. 6 is a sectional view on an enlarged scale taken as indicated along the line 6-6 of Fig. 5 to show the crossbrace for the head; and

Fig. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view of the fastening for the braces in the stack.

Referring to the drawings in greater detail, and referring first to Fig. 1, the ventilator includes a stack 10 having a square base 11 and a side wall 12 which tapers at its edges to merge into a circular top opening 13 provided with an outturned flange 14. Secured in the upper end of the stack are three radial channel members 15 which have their inner ends overlapping as seen in Fig. 4 and which have aligned axial openings 16 in which are brass retaining eyelets 19 and 19a (see Fig. 7). A shaft 17 which extends upwardly from openings 16 is removably supported therein by a cotter pin 18 resting on eyelet 19, and has a hook 17a at its lower end engaging a hole 15a in a channel 15 to prevent rotation of the shaft.

Surmounting shaft 17 is a revoluble head 20 which is an open bottom drum having a cylindrical side wall 21, and a shallow conical top 22 provided at its center with a boss 23 to receive an insulated bearing assembly 24 of the type disclosed in Patent No. 2,142,724. A removable crossbrace 25 in the bottom of the drum is impaled by shaft 17. Crossbrace 25 has two wings 25a and 2517 which are at 150 to one another; and a punched flap 250 at to wing 25a has an opening aligned with a hole 25d in the wings through which shaft 17 passes. When flap 250 is horizontal as seen in Figs. 1 and 6, wing 25b is inclined at 30 to the vertical while 25a is 30 to the horizontal so that the brace may act like a single air deflecting louver.

The lower margin 26 of the drum surrounds the flange 14 at the top of the stack, and the taper of the stack is such that when the shaft 17 and crossbrace 25 are removed the head may nest completely over the stack with its top 22 resting on the fiange 14 and its lower margin 26 on the side wall 12 of the stack as seen in Fig. 5.

The cylindrical wall 21 of the drum is cut away at one side to provide a ventilating opening 27 which, as best seen in Fig. 3, extends about 140 around the circumference of the drum. The upright margins of the opening 27 are turned out as seen at 28. Opening 26 is covered by a grill 29 to prevent birds or small animals from entering a building through the ventilator.

As best seen in Fig. 1, a directing vane 30 has a mounting flange 31 by means of which it may be detachably secured to the side of the drum so that it may readily be removed from the drum for shipping, and as seen in Fig. 2, the vane 30 is radially disposed in a plane which bisects the ventilating opening 27, and extends upwardly and outwardly from the ventilating opening.

As seen in Fig. 1, the vane takes the form of a long right triangle with its base side parallel to the drum wall and its narrowest portion down so that the part of the vane which is above the drum has the largest area; and since the vane extends outwardly from the drum wall it is best adapted to the purpose of turning the drum with the ventilating opening 27 downstream with respect to the wind, because its location far from the axis of the drum provides maximum torque for any cross component of wind velocity.

The dimensions and position of the vane are such that when it is mounted upon the drum it precisely balances the drum on the shaft 17 by compensating for the weight of material removed from the drum wall to form the ventilating opening 27. By reason of its location outside the drum wall, the vane 30 may compensate for the material removed from the wall even though it is considerably smaller than the area of the opening; so that the drum with the vane attached actually weighs less than a fully enclosed drum of the same size.

Exhaustive tests of revolving head ventilators constructed in accordance with the present disclosure have shown them to be far more efiicient than ventilators pre viously known to applicant because they are more readily rotated to a position with the ventilating opening downstream than are the prior art revolving head ventilators, so that they are much less subject to back-draft. This is due to the combination of balance, reduced weight and positioning the vane far from the axis of the drum.

The foregoing detailed description is given for clearness of understanding only and no unnecessary limitations should be understood therefrom, as modifications will be obvious to those skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. In a revolving head ventilator: a stack; a central spindle mounted in an upwardly extending position at the center of the stack; a ventilator head revolubly supported on said spindle, said ventilator head having an upright side wall provided with a ventilating aperture; a combined air deflecting louver and spindle guide extending across a diameter of said ventilator head which is transverse with respect to said ventilating aperture, said louver having first and second arms forming an obtuse angle opening toward the ventilating opening and there being a central opening in said arms through which the spindle extends; and integral bearing means on the louver aligned with said central opening.

2. The device of claim 1 in which the bearing means includes a horizontal tab bent outwardly from one of said arms, and a bearing member in said tab.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 583,847 Duhiam June 1, 1897 661,919 Newmarker Nov. 3, 1900 927,072 Proflitt July 6, 1909 2,218,348 Boyer Oct. 15, 1940 

